The
now nearly ubiquitous lithium-ion battery is quite possibly one of
the best things ever to happen to portable electronics. Modern
batteries boast good capacities, recharge rates, and charge cycle
lifespans. Unfortunately, this does not preclude them from having a
lifespan at all. And as anyone who has had to replace a laptop
battery or even a cell phone battery knows, they are not
inexpensive.

A
paper published in the ACS journal Nano
Letters by
researchers from Boston College outlines a new material engineered to
replace standard anode materials and performs better than other
recently engineered nanowire structures. Assistant Professor of
Chemistry Dunwei Wang and his team's new anode uses two-dimensional
titanium disilicide (TiSi2)
lattices sprinkled with silicon in a structure that they
call a nanonet.

The nanonet material's charge/discharge
rate was measured to be between five and ten times as fast as
standard carbon-based anode material at 8,400mA/g. It's specific
capacity during these tests was over 1,000mA-h/g, which doesn't place
it ahead of some germanium and silicon anode materials, but firmly
ahead of the previously mentioned carbon. The anode material was also
incredibly durable, losing only .1% capacity per cycle between the
20th and 100th test cycles.

Wang says the nanonet structure is
the key to the durability and speed of the new material. The
structure makes it incredibly resilient, while the conductivity
creates a good environment for the insertion and removal of the
lithium ions. This provides fast recharge times with very little
affect to capacitance over the battery's life.

The team plans
to next examine the effectiveness of nanonet structures for li-ion
battery cathodes.

"It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that." -- Bill Gates on the Apple iPad